The Bishop
of San Francisco & the West
650 Micheltorena St.
Los Angeles, California 90026-3629
Telephone: (323)
913-3615 Facsimile: (800) 323-6921
INTEROFFICE MEMO:
CONVENTIONS OF WRITING TO A HIERARCH
To: Very Reverend & Reverend Clergy & Parish Secretaries
From: Bishop TIKHON
Subject: Conventions of writing to a hierarch
1. I recently got a letter from a brother bishop belonging to a
neighboring archdiocese. It had apparently been issued using one of the
contemporary "mail merge" methods. It requested me to appoint a
layman from "my" parish and was signed off with:
"Paternally yours, Bishop (X)." I've also long remembered being
in the presence of the very first Orthodox hierarch I'd ever met when he
received a letter. He opened it, began to read, then jumped up, waved it
in the air and said, "He called me "you", that's the kind
of letter we have to put up with these days from our priests!" Today
I had occasion to review also a couple letters from clergy who were new to
our diocese. These letters, while certainly meeting contemporary standards
of courtesy for business letters, resembled correspondence of clergy not
at all, much less correspondence of deacons/priests with a bishop. I know
that you all want to act courteously and appropriately; moreover, I've
been asked on more than one occasion by prominent lay members of our
diocese to put out guidance on matters of "protocol" in general.
This is one such matter.
2. You are all aware that a hierarch does not request or receive a
blessing from a priest or deacon -- just the opposite. So, too, is it
awkward and inappropriate when a letter is addressed to a hierarch by a
priest or deacon or even lay person beginning or ending (or both) with a
generous blessing of the bishop, especially when the writer himself (or
herself) does not ask in the time-honored way for any blessing at all from
their bishop.
3. The most formal and conventional way to write a bishop is to address
him in the third person and never in the second; however, there are now
only a few who are aware of this custom or follow it, in America. Usually
one did not start a letter with "Dear," either. The correct way
was considered to be plain: "Your Beatitude (Eminence) (Grace), Most
Blessed Metropolitan (Most Reverend Archbishop) (Right Reverend Bishop)
(NAME)!. Priests never refer to themselves as "father" in their
conversations with each other, although they certainly may address others
as such. Likewise, no priest should inform the bishop, either in person,
on the phone, or in writing, that it is "Father" so-and-so who
is speaking or writing. That means it would be wildly inappropriate for a
priest or deacon to call me or write to me and say, "This is
Father...." or write "Yours truly, Father...." The priest
or deacon is not in any respect "father" to the hierarch, while
the hierarch is indeed "father" to the priest or deacon. Neither
is one priest "father" to another. It should be kept in mind
that bishops routinely extend the courtesy of addressing priests and
deacons as "father," but this is clearly a courtesy and does not
license the priest or deacon to refer to himself that way to the bishop.
Priests and deacons, therefore, should refer to themselves, and sign their
letters, according to their rank: Archpriest or Priest "X",
Deacon "X". The laity use their Christian names in such cases
and not their titles. (Likewise, a Priest conventionally would begin a
letter to a fellow priest with "Dear Father," but end it with
"The Priest (X).")
5. The first words of a letter from a priest, deacon, or lay person to
bishop should be a request for a blessing, couched, as stated, in the 3rd
person, e.g., "I request (or "humbly beg for," or
"pray for," or "dare to ask for" etc.) Your
(Beatitude) (Eminence) (Grace)'s blessing." The letter should
likewise close with a very similar formula, the most frequently used one
being this: "Requesting Your ( )'s archpastoral blessings and prayers
."
6. These and other conventions were developed in the process of
mankind's becoming more "humane," in treating one's fellows with
courtesy and respect appropriate to their station. I might add that in
very recent times it has become popular to adopt formulas with "I
press Your (Eminence's, etc.) hand," or "kiss" the same and
so forth; however, these formulas come from the conventions of addressing
royalty and nobility, and stress, when used in the Church, a kind of
lordliness with which many bishops may feel uncomfortable. I myself always
avoided such formulas, but I acknowledge that they are accepted and
acceptable.
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